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Facebook Is Changing How Conservative Sites Appear in Your Newsfeed – Here’s How To Fix It
The Political Insider ^ | 1-29-2018 | Thomas

Posted on 01/29/2018 1:45:52 PM PST by UMCRevMom@aol.com

As you have probably already noticed, Facebook is going through dramatic changes. Now, they are about to roll out massive updates to its newsfeed that will dramatically change the type of content you see

Facebook is going to focus on your nexus of family and friends, in addition to a list of what they label “trusted sources.”

Those “trusted sources” aren’t based on what you trust, but what they trust. They claim the pages will be based on “diverse and representative” criteria determined by sample pools of Facebook users. But no one – except Facebook itself – knows just what the rules are for the selection process.

Facebook noted they will rank news outlets it deems to be "reputable." Here is a recent Fox Business report on the massive changes:

VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=8MOhsoDBI3Y

Facebook is under tremendous pressure from the left and anti-Trump Democrats in Congress to make changes after the 2016 election. And their hastily made changes will dramatically change how you read the news.

But there is a way to ensure you don’t miss stories from the The Political Insider. Below are the instructions for how to update your Facebook settings so that your newsfeed prioritizes posts by sites you follow, like The Political Insider, rather than letting the platform determine what you get to see.

Step 1) Go to the drop-down arrow at the top righthand corner and select "News Feed Preferences."

Step 2) Select "Prioritize who to see first."

Step 3) Select "Pages Only"

Otherwise, we highly recommend a secondary option, where you can go to the page of the site you follow (such as The Political Insider) and choose "See First" in the drop-down menu below the button labeled “Following.”

Here is an excerpt from Mark Zuckerberg that explains the platform's new emphasis on promoting "Trusted" news sources in order to protect against "sensationalism, misinformation, and polarization."

There's too much sensationalism, misinformation and polarization in the world today. Social media enables people to spread information faster than ever before, and if we don't specifically tackle these problems, then we end up amplifying them. That’s why it's important that News Feed promotes high quality news that helps build a sense of common ground.

The hard question we've struggled with is how to decide what news sources are broadly trusted in a world with so much division. We could try to make that decision ourselves, but that’s not something we're comfortable with. We considered asking outside experts, which would take the decision out of our hands but would likely not solve the objectivity problem. Or we could ask you — the community — and have your feedback determine the ranking.

We decided that having the community determine which sources are broadly trusted would be most objective.

Here's how this will work. As part of our ongoing quality surveys, we will now ask people whether they're familiar with a news source and, if so, whether they trust that source. The idea is that some news organizations are only trusted by their readers or watchers, and others are broadly trusted across society even by those who don't follow them directly. (We eliminate from the sample those who aren't familiar with a source, so the output is a ratio of those who trust the source to those who are familiar with it.)

This update will not change the amount of news you see on Facebook. It will only shift the balance of news you see towards sources that are determined to be trusted by the community. [https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10104445245963251]

Mark Zuckerberg about a week ago

Continuing our focus for 2018 to make sure the time we all spend on Facebook is time well spent...

Last week I announced a major change to encourage meaningful social interactions with family and friends over passive consumption. As a result, you'll see less public content, including news, video, and posts from brands. After this change, we expect news to make up roughly 4% of News Feed -- down from roughly 5% today. This is a big change, but news will always be a critical way for people to start conversations on important topics.

Today I'm sharing our second major update this year: to make sure the news you see, while less overall, is high quality. I've asked our product teams to make sure we prioritize news that is trustworthy, informative, and local. And we're starting next week with trusted sources.

There's too much sensationalism, misinformation and polarization in the world today. Social media enables people to spread information faster than ever before, and if we don't specifically tackle these problems, then we end up amplifying them. That's why it's important that News Feed promotes high quality news that helps build a sense of common ground.

The hard question we've struggled with is how to decide what news sources are broadly trusted in a world with so much division. We could try to make that decision ourselves, but that's not something we're comfortable with. We considered asking outside experts, which would take the decision out of our hands but would likely not solve the objectivity problem. Or we could ask you -- the community -- and have your feedback determine the ranking.

We decided that having the community determine which sources are broadly trusted would be most objective.

Here's how this will work. As part of our ongoing quality surveys, we will now ask people whether they're familiar with a news source and, if so, whether they trust that source. The idea is that some news organizations are only trusted by their readers or watchers, and others are broadly trusted across society even by those who don't follow them directly. (We eliminate from the sample those who aren't familiar with a source, so the output is a ratio of those who trust the source to those who are familiar with it.)

This update will not change the amount of news you see on Facebook. It will only shift the balance of news you see towards sources that are determined to be trusted by the community.

My hope is that this update about trusted news and last week's update about meaningful interactions will help make time on Facebook time well spent: where we're strengthening our relationships, engaging in active conversations rather than passive consumption, and, when we read news, making sure it's from high quality and trusted sources.



TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: conservativewebsites; facebook; fbcensorship; freespeech; internet
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To: UMCRevMom@aol.com
Those “trusted sources” aren’t based on what you trust, but what they trust.

Exactly.

They claim the pages will be based on “diverse and representative” criteria

To the left this means a white liberal, a black liberal, an Hispanic liberal, an Asian liberal, a male liberal, a female liberal, a gay liberal, a lesbian liberal, a transvestite liberal, and maybe a conservative.

21 posted on 01/29/2018 2:04:48 PM PST by libertylover (Kurt Schlicter: "They wonder why they got Trump. They are why they got Trump")
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To: UMCRevMom@aol.com

If they don’t release the memo, I’m making my profile picture just a text reading #RELEASE THE MEMO.

Curious to see how long that lasts.


22 posted on 01/29/2018 2:05:19 PM PST by texas_mrs
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To: UMCRevMom@aol.com

If you are reading the news provided by Facebook you need your head examined. I do not read or follow businesses or topics on it. I have very good “ignore” abilities.


23 posted on 01/29/2018 2:06:26 PM PST by Pilated (.)
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To: Bshaw

Not that I am suggesting it but with a little tweaking FR could become the conservative version of FB.


24 posted on 01/29/2018 2:08:29 PM PST by Leep (The dims better watch it..Trump is CRAZY!!)
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To: Tallguy
or CNN. I spend most of my time at airport gates being p*ssed off.

I don't go to airports, so I'm safe. I only watch CNN on youtube clips so I can laugh at them when they F up. On second thought, I do watch them a lot.

25 posted on 01/29/2018 2:11:45 PM PST by bagster (Even bad men love their mamas.)
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To: Leep

No it couldn’t.


26 posted on 01/29/2018 2:20:45 PM PST by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: UMCRevMom@aol.com

And they are rejecting conservative news stories, marking them as spam.


27 posted on 01/29/2018 2:26:22 PM PST by ilovesarah2012
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To: UMCRevMom@aol.com

I do Facebook, and my daily newsfeed is full of articles from conservative newa sites like Daily Caller, MRCtv, Newsbusters, Campus Reform, WND, Conservative Book Club, Judicial Watch and others.

In fact, some of the articles I post on FR are ones that I first see on my Facebook newsfeed.


28 posted on 01/29/2018 2:27:54 PM PST by Maceman (We need a temporary ban on Muslims just until churches and synagogues can be built in Mecca.)
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To: UMCRevMom@aol.com
Stop using FakeBook....would be my answer.

I've never used it...and don't ever intend to.

29 posted on 01/29/2018 2:27:56 PM PST by Osage Orange (Watch your six.)
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To: bagster

“What kind of dumbass gets their news off facebook?”

Obviously you didn’t read the article!


30 posted on 01/29/2018 2:28:49 PM PST by TexasGator (Z)
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To: TexasGator
Obviously you didn’t read the article!

What kind of dumbass reads the article?

31 posted on 01/29/2018 2:30:00 PM PST by bagster (Even bad men love their mamas.)
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To: Leep

There is Free Republic on Facebook. Laz is very entertaining.


32 posted on 01/29/2018 2:31:29 PM PST by ilovesarah2012
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To: bagster

A long time ago I let it be known I don’t and won’t do facebook, one of my better decisions.


33 posted on 01/29/2018 2:33:46 PM PST by gibsonguy
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To: UMCRevMom@aol.com

good tip


34 posted on 01/29/2018 2:35:10 PM PST by Cats Pajamas (#releasethememo)
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To: gibsonguy

I like Facebook. I’m a cat person.


35 posted on 01/29/2018 2:36:47 PM PST by bagster (Even bad men love their mamas.)
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To: Celerity

**Never return to facebook.com.**

Why even go there in the first place?

I have never subscribed and think doing that is wise!


36 posted on 01/29/2018 2:38:22 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: bagster

Bagster, that’s good. HA HA


37 posted on 01/29/2018 2:38:23 PM PST by happytrumper
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To: ilovesarah2012

Yah yah. I like that Laz’ facebook group a lot. It makes me laugh. Also you can see my pretty face on there.


38 posted on 01/29/2018 2:39:06 PM PST by bagster (Even bad men love their mamas.)
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To: happytrumper

Yay, you caught my joke. :)


39 posted on 01/29/2018 2:40:02 PM PST by bagster (Even bad men love their mamas.)
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To: bagster

Bagster, that’s good. HA HA


40 posted on 01/29/2018 2:40:06 PM PST by happytrumper
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